Keep Calm, and Drink your Boba

Inclusion and Not Exclusion

There was an article that I read regarding Shia LaBeouf and his committee starting this project called He Will Not Divide Us and it talked about how it was to bring together a community and say those very words in order to support inclusion and bring down the walls of division that had been built from the words of President Trump during his presidential campaign.

This was a very interesting piece of article and obviously, I was moved by the fact that this project divulged the first amendment generally, but it was also sometimes not clear to myself as well. First amendment, you know, is a lot of things: freedom of the press, freedom of speech and say. But it occasionally, especially during this time when the walls are too thick to break down and hatred between Clinton and Trump supporters, the first amendment is not to be taken lightly.

I think it’s because of the fact that this was a video project where this camera will be outside the museum wall and it enables the citizens whoever to pass by and rather than say the phrase, some people can be a bit out of hand and say whatever they want. And that raised some questions as to what really is the purpose of this. Bramer deemed those who spoke of negativity (e.g. pro-Trump) with no toleration; however, the artists responded back that their project wasn’t intended for anti-trump but inclusion.

But of course, other people such as the councilman, otherwise don’t feel comfortable with the project at all. It raised a few threats and also the fear of neo-Nazism. For me, the project was misunderstood because I got the idea that this was all about including and unity of the community. But how could you have a community when there are people whose opinions immediately spark a fight?

I guess the term inclusion still needs a bit of work; however, there’s no denying that this effort clearly has made and will hopefully continue to make a more positive impact to the community.